


The Four Rooms

by Kateifer



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 09:59:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kateifer/pseuds/Kateifer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After running out on his abusive ex-girlfriend, Jude finds himself in a spot of trouble.  He had left school to support himself and his girlfriend, as his family had cut him off, and he had spent almost all of his money.  While caught out in the rain, Jude stumbles across a strange cafe, housed in a very large converted mansion called The Four Rooms.  Upon going into this cafe to get out of the rain for a while, Jude winds up finding a new job, friends, and even a place to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Four Rooms

**Author's Note:**

> I'm testing something out here, and if I don't get the first chapter up, I'm worried I'll never end up posting it. It's a bit rough and unedited. Edits and more chapters to come as I suss more details out.

_“You can't walk out on me! I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you!”_

_“Watch me.”_

Those parting words ran through Jude's mind over and over, yet they still refused to sink in. The reality of the situation kept slipping away from him as he allowed his mind to wander and play his entire relationship through his head. How had he not seen it before? How had he not noticed that every red flag should have been raised months – hell – even a year ago. When their relationship started, even. Every thing his father once did, every single thing his mother once defended to him – it was all there in his relationship with – her. He was so angry and devastated that he couldn't even bring himself to think of her name. He was livid, but crushed. Hopeless, too. God, everything was in shambles. All because he had been too thick to see what was right in front of him.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty, he supposed, as he wandered aimlessly. 

He had been walking in one direction for about forty minutes now, and he couldn't remember having been to this part of town before. He snapped out of his thoughts long enough to look around and take everything in. Usually, he didn't wander too far from either his old apartment, or before that, the university campus. Between his classes before quitting school, and all of the time he spent trying to make his ex-girlfriend happy, he had never really wandered around the city. Apparently, he was in a quainter part of the downtown area. It was lined with cute little shops and restaurants, all of which looked relatively busy. It was a Friday evening, he wasn't surprised that there were so many people.

Friday nights used to be their date night. He was planning on making supper and putting on that Netflix documentary they had been thinking about watching.

He shook his head and continued walking. He needed to find a place to sit and think for a minute. He needed to be able to set his ratty backpack down, sit, and try to figure out his next steps. Wandering like this wasn't going to help him out, and he couldn't let himself go back to that apartment. He couldn't go back to her, not after what had happened. He needed to do now what he was best at – what he had done to get away from his father so many years ago. He needed to run, to find a place of his own to stay.

When the sky opened up and the rain started to pour down in buckets, Jude stopped in his tracks for a moment and sighed. Of course the weather had to take a turn for the worst. Because, at this point, his life felt like one very long, very cliched melodrama. So of course it had to rain.

After taking a moment to wallow, Jude adjusted his backpack and kept on walking. Most of the restaurants and coffee houses that littered the street he was on were full, some even with people sitting in the front waiting for seats. So he just kept going, walking straight down the street until the buildings seemed to thin out a bit. He was considering turning on his heel and waiting at one of the other places, but he saw a small sandwich board sign on the sidewalk up ahead, telling him that there was a cafe up ahead. He picked up the pace and jogged a bit, taking a look at the building he was faced with. It seemed so out of place with the rest of the downtown area, and seemed to mark the start of a more residential area. It was clearly once a very large home, but now it appeared to be the home to a cafe. The sign on the front of the door simply said, “The Four Rooms.”

Jude decided that there would be no harm in checking if this place was as busy as the others. If it was, he would just wait for a table to open up. At least he would be out of the rain. Although, he was soaked through, so at this point it really didn't make much of a difference. He made his way to the front door, and let himself in. Inside, it looked even more like a converted house. He was standing in what was once a foyer to what looked to be a mansion, really, which lead immediately into two large rooms. One with the door propped open, showing small tables and a counter with coffee and baked goods. The other had a door closed, with a sign that said “Closed: Private Event” on it. Well, that limited his options. Jude found that there was a small table in the far corner of the cafe free, so he went right to it and sat down. And, once he stashed his bag under the table in front of him, he pulled out his phone to begin browsing for apartments. He knew he wouldn't find anything coming available that night, but he wanted to start booking showings as soon as possible. He wasn't sure if he could afford first and last, even, but he would worry about expense later. He'd have to worry about everything later, really. For the moment, he was focused on planning ahead. Even if he didn't have a place to stay that night. He'd have to start looking right away, of course. Like his dad always used to nag him about, he couldn't expect things to just happen for him, after all.

“Hey, kid,” a friendly voice jarred him from his train of thought, “What can I get for you?”


End file.
